


Time is Cruel, but Gods are Crueller

by CharlotteDaBookworm



Series: Ardynson AU [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Ardynson AU, BAMF Ardyn Izunia, BAMF Nyx Ulric, Chosen of Ramuh Nyx, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fuck Bahamut, Galahdian Culture, Gen, Good Dad Ardyn, Nyx is Ardyns son, Reunions, Solheim (Final Fantasy XV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 14:50:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16120760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharlotteDaBookworm/pseuds/CharlotteDaBookworm
Summary: "Go." And this time it was an order, from a King to a Prince - rather than from a father to his son. Nyx bowed his head - grief and pain and resignation and bitter acceptance warring inside of him - even as his father darted forward into the fray in order to give him enough time to escape."Yes, Your Majesty." With one last glance back at his father, trying desperately to etch his face into his mind, Nyx darted for the gap that Ardyn had made by force and magic and staff.He didn't look back again.Or, that au of the Ardynson AU where Nyx was born before Ardyn was cursed and was ordered away by Ardyn before his execution





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Right so, ages ago hamelin-born over on tumblr gave me this prompt for Nyx saying "yes, your majesty" to his father, sarcastically or otherwise, and this mess of angst is what came out of it.

"Father. _Please_." He was begging. He hadn't begged for anything in years, since he was a small child who was after training or sweets, and _never_ like this. But he didn't care about his station at the minute, he didn't care about what people would think if they heard him. Right now, all he wanted to do was change his fathers' mind.

 

" _Go_ , Nyx. You'll be safe in Galahd, your mothers' people will protect you."

 

Never before in his life had he seen his father look so hopeless, so _broken_. And he suddenly hated his uncle, because this was his fault. His - and Bahamut's. Bahamut who had told his father that he had this amazing destiny, that he would save the lives of their people from the Scourge, and had then told him that he would have to die for that destiny. Bahamut who had then turned around and vilified his father, all because the man hadn't wanted to die - all because he had tried to find another way. Uncle Somnus who had promised to always support his father _(who had brought Nyx gifts when he was young. Who had taught him how to fish and had given him piggyback rides and told him off for climbing trees and teased him about his crushes. Who was often away on diplomatic visits but had always had time for his family. Who had always said he loved them, had always said that he'd protect them)_ but had turned his back on them - who had declared his father a monster, had turned their people against them, who was calling for the _death_ of Nyx's father _(of Somnus' brother)_. Nyx **hated** them, more than he had ever thought possible.

 

_(Why didn't they understand?!_

 

_All Ardyn had ever wanted was to help people. He was a_ healer _for Ramuh's sake. But they were treating him as though he wasn't human simply because he had absorbed the Scourge._

 

_Why couldn't they see that he was still his_ father _? That he hadn't really changed from the man who he had been before? Why would they turn against their_ King _like this?_

 

Why _?)_

 

_ (Gods are cruel because they allow us to hope) _

 

"No. I won't leave you. I **_won't_**." Even now they were being hunted. Chased across the hole of Eos by their own people. And Ardyn was strong, Nyx knew that, but even he had to sleep sometime. They stood a better chance of surviving together. And he didn't want to leave his father.

 

Nyx had a bad feeling that, if he did, it would be the last time that he would see the man.

 

_(Because, Ardyn would hesitate. These were their_ people _and he wouldn't want to harm them. Wouldn't want to_ kill _them. If Nyx weren't there, Ardyn would hesitate. His father would hesitate and he would lose and he would be taken and then he would die._

 

_Nyx didn't want that to happen)_

 

BANG.

 

They both ducked, diving for cover away from the gunshots. They'd been found. Again. Even though they had both been limiting their magic use - certain that that was how they had been tracking them.

 

It was the work of seconds to take out the troopers shooting at them, but all that did was highlight the problem. They were surrounded - and there were far too many for them to fight, even together.

 

It didn't stop them from trying.

 

" ** _Go._** " And this time it was an order, from a King to a Prince - rather than from a father to his son. Nyx bowed his head - grief and pain and resignation and bitter acceptance warring inside of him - even as his father darted forward into the fray in order to give him enough time to escape.

 

"Yes, Your Majesty." With one last glance back at his father, trying desperately to etch his face into his mind, Nyx darted for the gap that Ardyn had made by force and magic and staff.

 

He didn't look back again.

 

_(A month later, Nyx will arrive in Galahd. He will be greeted by the King and she will tell him that he will always have a place in his homeland._

 

_And he will be told of his father's execution at Somnus' hand, just days previously)_

 

_(A decade later, and Galahd will have withdrawn from the world around them. Someone will comment on how he has hardly aged a day since he had arrived. Nyx won't laugh, where once he would have made a comment on his good genes, because it will be true._

 

_A year after that, he will take a fatal blow while on a hunt. Within an hour, he'll be fully recovered._

 

_That night, Ramuh will tell him of the curse that Bahamut put on his line - on_ Ardyn's _line. But, at Bahamut's orders, he will not mention the curse on Ardyn himself)_

 

_(When Somnus dies, Nyx is there. He hasn't aged a day since the last time he had seen his uncle, but he looks older than the 20 he was when he was cursed._

 

_Somnus dies and Nyx watches._

 

_Part of him wishes that he'd dealt the final blow himself)_

 

_(Two thousand years pass. Galahd avoids Solheim, and later Lucis. Knowledge of the Galahdian Kings falls into myth across Eos. Nyx continues to protect Galahd and their Kings from the shadows - all of Galahd knows of the Blue Coeurl that is their protector, the oldest of Ramuh's chosen, the son of the Sage, their Knight. But outside of Galahd, Nyx is lost to history, much like his father is._

 

_Two thousand years pass. Niflheim attacks and Galahd falls and there is nothing that Nyx can do. Nyx leads his people to Lucis - to the safest place available - by the order of their dying King. He joins the 'glaive to hide himself, and so that he could continue to protect his people._

 

_Two thousand years pass. Nyx moves on. He makes friends, finds a family, learns to live and laugh and hope again)_

 

_(And then, after two thousand years have passed, Niflheim will ask for a treaty with Lucis. An envoy will be sent to Insomnia to treat with King Regis. Everyone with any political sense will see that it's a trap, but Lucis is losing the war and they have no choice._

 

_And then, after two thousand years have passed, the Chancellor of Niflheim will walk into the throne room with words of peace on his lips. Nyx will be on guard duty at the time, standing in a shadowed alcove and wary of threats to the King)_

 

_(Ardyn Izunia will walk into the Insomnian throne room, and Nyx will meet his eyes._

 

_He will take a step forward, not noticing the way the room silences, and he will speak with a man who he has not seen in millennia. He will not care about the way that his voice shakes, nor will he worry about the reactions of others._

 

_He will step forward and he will stare at a face that he has almost forgotten in the intervening years, a face that has not aged a day since he had last seen it - just like his own._

 

_Nyx will step forward and a word that he has not spoken in two thousand years will fall from his lips, ringing loudly in the silence of the room)_

 

_("Father.")_

 


	2. "Father."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the first time in two millenia, he was _home_

Nyx hates guard duty.

 

It's boring. He's never been much for standing still, not unless hunting was involved. And, while two thousand years may have taught him some patience, he doesn't like dealing with people the way that he has too while on guard duty.

 

Which is why Drautos uses it as punishment whenever Nyx disobeys orders - usually to save another glaive, being functionally immortal meant that he was a lot more reckless than everyone else. So Nyx spends a _lot_ of time on guard duty. But, usually, Drautos is kind enough to give him Wall duty, rather than Citadel duty.

 

Because Nyx _loathes_ the Citadel. Spends as little time there as possible, preferring to spend time outside of the city - or in the Immigration district or the glaives training area.

 

_(Because the Citadel is practically a monument to Bahamut, built by the Lucis Caelum line._

 

_A monument to the god that demonised his father, that housed the Crystal that was a beacon of power for the Astral that cursed Ardyn's entire line because the man didn't want to die. A monument built by his_ Uncles _line - his uncle who killed his father, who took his throne and turned their people against them and wiped them from history. A monument that reminded Nyx of the past - of the things that were taken from him and his father for no reason of their own._

 

_He hated being in close proximity to the Crystal - it made him feel like Bahamut would appear at any moment. And being in the Citadel meant being surrounded by memories of the past, just like how sometimes the Lucis Caelum's reminded him so much of his father and Somnus that it almost hurt to breathe._

 

_Was it any wonder that Nyx loathed the Citadel?)_

 

_(There is a painting that hangs on the wall of a corridor, not far from the throne room. It's old and faded, the colours washed out and the style reminiscent of Nyx's childhood. The first time that he had seen it, it had taken all the restraint that he had gained in over two thousand years of life to prevent him from burning the entire city down - to not destroy everything in his path due to the anger and grief that welled up in him._

 

_Once his shift had ended, he had taken two weeks off. He had left the city and returned to the ruins that remained of Galahd, and then he had_ raged _. He had called lightning and fire, had carved his way through the large swath of the jungle, until nothing but a burnt out crater had remained._

 

_The first time that Nyx had seen his fathers face in 2000 years, and it was in a painting that portrayed the man's execution)_

 

As such, well, let's just say that Nyx wasn't particularly happy to be on Citadel Guard duty.

 

Especially with all of the rumours floating around about a possible treaty with Niflheim - Nyx hated politics and the Nifs had destroyed Galahd, had destroyed the only home that he had had for thousands of years.

 

But Nyx had joined the glaive to protect the Galahdian people - to fulfil the last wishes of a King who had earnt his loyalty, who had sacrificed herself to protect her people, who had asked him to keep them safe - and he would fulfil his duty.

 

Even when that duty meant Citadel Guard - standing in a shadowed alcove for hours on end, bored out of his mind.

 

An alcove that had a perfect view of the large entrance to the throne room, allowing him direct line of sight for everything that came through them. Including the diplomatic envoy sent from Niflheim, who he was pretty sure was going to be a threat.

 

Still, that didn't stop every muscle in his body from tensing the moment that he saw the man who walked in.

 

Because he _recognised_ that face. A face that hadn't aged a day from the last time that he had seen it, but still looked so much older - just like his own. His eyes desperately scanned the familiar half-remembered features of a man who was probably a hallucination, desperate to commit them to memory once again before the figure faded.

 

_(Fuck. He'd been getting better - he hadn't hallucinated his father, without being seriously ill or on drugs, for years. Not since his memories had started to wear and fade with age._

 

_All memories fade, eventually. Time takes everything in the end. Nyx hadn't had more than faded recollections of what his father had looked like for centuries - enough to point at his own features and say who he had got them from, or too look at a colour and know that it was the colour of his father's eyes, but nothing more. When he had first realised that, it had broken him. He had disappeared into the mountains for decades - there was an entire generation of Galahds people that he had never met - eating just enough for strength and spending his days killing everything in his path._

 

_But, looking at the face in front of him, all he could remember was the last time he had seen his father - face twisted in rage, magic swirling around him, surrounded by the bodies of their people sent to take them, injured and tired and trying to protect him)_

 

_(His father had been young, when he was born. Not long passed twenty, and looking younger, he had never expected a child from a short fling. But he had been a good father - Nyx had never doubted his father's love for him, even when he was busy healing the people or being King._

 

_He had also never doubted the fact that his father would kill for him. Nyx just hated the fact that Ardyn had been forced to kill his own people just to protect his son)_

 

"Hello there! Hello! Good day to you! And to you too. Well met, my dear Lucians"

 

Nyx's breathe stuttered in his chest. That was his father's voice, exactly as he remembered it - the one thing to survive the fading done by time. And everyone was reacting - they heard him and they saw him.

 

_Fuck._ This had to be a hallucination. His father was **_dead_** , had been for millennia - killed by his brother's hand at the order of an Astral.

 

… An Astral who had then proceeded to curse his _entire line_ with immortality...

 

**…Shit**. He had known that Ramuh wasn't telling him everything about the curse but Nyx just hadn't cared, hadn't _wanted_ to know - not when his father was dead and their people had turned against them and he couldn't _fucking die._

 

So. This might actually be happening. His father might actually be _alive._

 

And suddenly he was eight again - eight and just having survived his first assassination attempt and seeing his dad for the first time since it had happened. All he wanted to do was wrap himself in his father's arms and hide from the rest of the world.

 

As his father introduced himself _(and this_ was _his father, he would know that even without the name, he could_ feel _it. Also, no one but Ardyn was that dramatic - and even two thousand years hadn't improved his fashion sense a bit)_ Nyx found himself stepping forwards without thinking about it, out of the shadows that hid him. All eyes shot to him, his footsteps echoing in the already silent room, and his father straightened out of his bow as his eyes met his own - they both froze. Ardyn fell silent, face pale with burgeoning hope in his eyes - alongside a horrible, dawning realisation.

 

" _Father."_ The word ripped itself from him - the broken, almost-foreign, sound stumbling off of his lips before he realises that he's spoken. It'd been over two thousand years since he had last said that word.

 

Before he realised it, he was in his father's arms - their magic merging, his father's enveloping his like it had when he was a small toddler. The world faded away as Nyx pressed his face into his father's shoulder, much like he had done as a child, as the older man muttered reassurances and apologies into his hair in their native language. He felt safe - completely safe - and happy for the first time since before Somnus and Bahamut had taken his father's throne. Like a child who still believed that their parents could protect them from everything. Nyx didn't want to move.

 

For the first time in two millennia, he was _home_.

 


	3. "You were a child, Nyx"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> " _Nyx_. Oh, my son. I am so sorry." It was little more than a whisper, murmured directly into his child's hair.

" _Nyx_. Oh, my son. I am so sorry." It was little more than a whisper, murmured directly into his child's hair.

 

Ardyns' son was buried in his arms, his whole body shaking and his head pressed into his neck, seeking comfort in a way that he hadn't since he was a small boy fresh from a nightmare. Comfort that Ardyn honestly needed just as much as Nyx did. _His son_ had been cursed, cursed and then alone for two thousand years - and Ardyn _hadn't known._ He hadn't known that his son was alive, never in all of his years had he felt as much a failure as a father than now.

 

"I thought you were _dead_! But the time I got to Galahd, they'd already announced your execution. I thought that _uncle had killed you._ " His heart broke a little more, unable to help picturing the boy he had sent away arriving home to the news of his death at the hands of a man that Nyx had trusted. At the mention of his brother his rage flared, and Ardyn tightened his grip on his son.

 

"I had thought you dead as well. My brother told me that there had been an accident, that you had died not long after we separated. Believe me, if I had known you alive - no force on this world would have stopped me from finding you."

 

"I know. I know dad. But, fuck. I am so _sorry._ "

 

He closed his eyes and shook his head, unable to even imagine what Nyx could be apologising for, but feeling the apology like one would a stab to the heart. Nyx _shouldn't_ be apologising. Not after Ardyn had gotten him cursed with Immortality. He hated the fact that Nyx felt the need to apologise - that his son would ever have a reason to say _anything_ in such a broken tone of voice.

 

_"No Nyx_. You have nothing to apologise for-"

 

"Yes, I do! I _left_ you-" And he couldn't let that stand. Nyx had always had a difficult time accepting that he was not to blame for events, but the responsibility for this lay solely on Ardyn's shoulders.

 

"I ordered you to leave me. And if you had not then you most certainly would have died." _So he couldn't regret it - could_ never _regret putting his sons' life first, no matter the consequences._

 

"But I should have known that you were alive."

 

"You couldn't have known, Nyx-"

 

"I _should have_. The Old Man told me. When I discovered the curse the Old Man _told me_ that He had cursed 'the Line of Ardyn'. I didn't even think about why he didn't just say that He had cursed me, didn't even think about what that might have meant for you-"

 

Ardyn cursed Ramuh as much as he thanked him. Nyx was one of his chosen, so of course the Astral would protect him and try to tell him - but Ardyn knew from experience that gods were fickle. And Nyx didn't need that guilt, no matter that the Old Man was trying to help.

 

" _Nyx_. My son. You thought me dead and buried long before you discovered the curse, you had grieved my loss and accepted my fate - _why_ would you have thought of me? You were a _child._ "

 

His anger was starting to build once again, the scourge in his blood rising with it, at the thought of _his son_ being cursed because of Ardyn's sins - because of his blood in Nyx's veins. They had no _right..._

 

Nyx grumbled, irritated. "I was _twenty_." He had to fight a laugh, though the retort amused him as much as it saddened him. His son at 20 had still been a child, still an innocent in so many ways. And, while the retort showed that at least some of the boy Nyx had been remained, the betrayals and everything that had happened afterwards had hardened him - turning him from a happy boy who did his best to help everyone and always had a smile into a paranoid man who was rare to laugh and gave his trust to few.

 

"You were a _child,_ Nyx. An innocent. You had committed no crimes, nor been charged with any wrongs. They had _no right_ to do what They have, no right to judge you based on my sins. I am so sorry for what I have caused you to suffer."

 

Because this was _his_ fault. Bahamut held a large portion of the blame, as did Somnus, but the largest portion came to rest on Ardyn. Ardyn who chose to fight his destiny instead of dying for it, who had brought the wrath of the Astrals down on the two of them.

 

"Father, _no_. You did nothing wrong. Not wanting to die for His plans, trying to find another way - that's all part of being human and you didn't deserve to be judged for it, not then or now. And I don't regret standing with you, nor do I regret sharing this curse - not when it means that I can see you again, after all of this time. I- I hope that you don't either."

 

He swallowed back his grief at the fact that his son would even ask him that. "Oh, my son. I do not regret any of our time together, not in the past nor now. But I _will_ kill Him for this. He had _no_ right to do this to you, no right to curse an innocent for the sins of the father, and I will see him pay for it."

 

"Father. _Please_. I can't lose you again."

 

"I swear to you, my son, that you will not. Nevertheless, I _cannot_ \- will not - leave this transgression unpunished. Not when _He_ will use it against the both of us. It may not be immediately, but I will make him pay."

 

Nyx pressed himself closer, and Ardyn knew that - while he understood - he wasn't happy. But he had to do this - because he loved his son and he would never be safe as long as Bahamut lived.

 

"I understand Father."

 


	4. Once burnt, twice shy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They try to separate them.

They try to separate them.

 

Nyx knows that it's standard procedure, that they're just trying to do their jobs and that they needed to determine their threat level. Fuck knows that he's been on the opposite side of this often enough. And they've just had what is obviously a giant reunion in the middle of the Lucian throne room, revealing a lot of information that wasn't previously known. Of course, they'd want to talk to the two of them, especially since his dad was apparently Niflheim's Chancellor.

 

Nyx _knows_ that they don't mean anything by it.

 

But that didn't make it any easier to stop himself from lashing out at them.

 

It didn't make him release his grip on his father, didn't stop him from moving in front of the man as if to protect him.

 

Because Nyx trusts the 'glaive. He trusts Regis and Cor and even Clarus. He does. And he knows that it wouldn't be permanent, that they just needed to speak to the both of them separately.

 

But.

 

_(He had trusted Somnus too._

 

_Had thought nothing of it when the man had asked to meet him in an out of the way room, assuming that his uncle wanted some privacy. Had just shrugged when he had been asked not to tell his father, assuming that his uncle was planning a surprise for the man. He wasn't even_ wrong _._

 

_Because Nyx had trusted his uncle, and Somnus had used that. Had used that to separate them, to imprison them, to judge them_ guilty _and_ unworthy _without a trial, to take their country and their people from them._

 

_They had only been able to escape because Somnus hadn't expected any sort of resistance - had planned ahead, had underestimated them, had banked on their trust of him and their inability to hurt those they loved. And, he was right, in a way - they had loved him and couldn't bring themselves to hurt him, but trust could break and neither would stand back and let the other die._

 

_They had escaped, had spent months together on the run. Together every minute of every day, until the day that they were caught. Until his father had told him to run, until they had had no choice but to leave each other)_

 

But this was his **father**. His dad. His dad who was _real_ : who was breathing, who still smelled the same, who still had horrible fashion sense and was overly dramatic, who _loved him_. Who he had believed dead for so long, who he only had faded memories of, whose loss he had blamed himself for for most of his life.

 

And, the last time he had agreed to be separated from his father, he had believed him to be dead for literal millennia.

 

Nyx wouldn't, _couldn't_ , do that again. Not when he'd only just found him, not when he has spent the last two thousand years certain that his Uncle had killed his Father - just because an Astral had told him to.

 

Not when these people served Somnus' line, were _of_ Somnus' line - no matter how distant, no matter how much he trusted that Regis was a good man, no matter that they weren't Somnus.

 

Once burnt, twice shy.

 

A member of the Crownsguard stepped closer, insistent, and Nyx couldn't help his snarl. The guard froze, while behind him his father growled - obviously as reluctant to be parted as Nyx was.

 

"If you dare to lay one hand on my son, then I will remove your organs _in alphabetical order_." He glanced to the side to see one of the Crownsguard had laid a hand on their sidearm, gripping his father's wrist to calm him down - to calm them _both_ down.

 

They really didn't need to escalate the situation more than it already was.

 


End file.
